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Yanukovich says his car came under gunfire last Friday

KIEV, February 22, 19:06 /ITAR-TASS/ President Viktor Yanukovich of Ukraine said in a televised address to the nation that his car came under gunfire Friday.

"Gunfire was opened at my car last Friday in Kiev but I don't have any fear because I'm overwhelmed by the feeling of responsibility for this country," he said, adding that the incident occurred when he was driving to the airport.

He also said he expected the international community to observe its obligations.

"What will we do? I'll watch the international community's reaction and see how they fulfill their obligations," Yanukovich said. "Foreign Minister Kozhara still has legitimacy and he told me yesterday he had spoken to the Europeans, to the Polish Foreign Minister, and had made calls to the U.S."

"I hope I'll be conducting these talks in the next few days," he said.

Yanukovich also said that parliament speaker Vladimir Rybak had been beaten up on the eve of resignation.

"He was beaten up yesterday," he said. "As he was riding to my office, his car underwent gunfire."

"He asked me to take him out of the city and I sent him to Donetsk /a major city in the industrialized east of the country Itar-Tass/ to get medical treatment there," he said.

Yanukovich indicated that the same had happened to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Andrei Kliuyev.

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